WITH a flurry of new businesses opening in Stroud, the town centre could be heading for a boom period.

New restaurant The Corner House opened on Friday, following the recent arrivals of Simpsons Fish and Chips and American-themed The Diner.

With nightclub The Marshall Rooms set to open soon, and shop spaces on the corner of Kendrick Street and in King Street now ready for new owners, as well as potentially three new supermarkets on the way, Stroud is proving popular with new businesses.

However, plans for the £10million overhaul of the Merrywalks shopping centre seem to have stalled, with no progress since developer Dransfield’s initial letter of interest to the district council back in April.

The Corner House has opened in London Road in the former home of Stroud Music Centre, which was run for nearly 50 years by David and Mary Smith.

Rochelle Anselm, co-owner of The Corner House alongside business partner Antonio Matarazzo, told the SNJ: “I am a Londoner and have been in Stroud for 15 years now but Antonio is from Stroud, born and bred and it has always been his dream to have a restaurant in Stroud so we decided we would open one together.

“It took us a while to find the right venue but we finally came across the former music centre and both of us fell in love with it.

“All the locals have been so happy that the old building will finally be open to the public and we in turn look forward to welcoming them.”

The restaurant has a European and British food focus and is open morning to night.

Bar and nightclub The Marshall Rooms is set to open on the weekend of October 7 in the former home of Twisted Fix in Nelson Street, under the ownership of Lotte Lyster, Tom De Brabant and Keith Allen, who runs The Diner next door with his wife Tamzin Malleson.

Lotte, the key organiser of the Stroud Fringe Festival, said The Marshall Rooms “should help liven up the night time economy”.

She added: “Often if there is a big event at Lansdown Hall or the Sub Rooms, there will be a lot of people wandering around and this should help keep them in town.

“Stroud is such a great town and it is wonderful to do something a bit different.

“The more you have going on in a town, the more people will come down, they’ll see that there are a few events on or a few places they want to go and come visit.

“We’re very excited about it all, we’re bringing it [The Marshall Rooms] back again, a lot of the bands coming back will have played here in the 80s and 90s, where they got their first start, played their first gig.”

There is also a new business set to open at the Malthouse in Salmon Springs.

Lindsey Butcher, owner of Field Barn Interiors and a former trader at the antiques centre at the Malthouse, is the new tenant heading up what is now called the Malthouse Collective on the Salmon Springs Industrial Estate.

“This is an exciting opportunity to launch a new retail business," she said.

"The Malthouse is a unique environment from which to trade, and the Malthouse Collective will see makers working alongside antiques dealers to diversify the offering in this vast retail space."

The collective are looking for new dealers and makers to join the collective as well as inviting in previous traders from the emporium. Applications will be taken on themalthousecollective.co.uk.